D&D 4E 4E Liker - anything you worry about?

[wedgeski]

Minor Fear: Lack of the mundane. The fantastic is only fun if there is something to balance it out. Fighters et al resorted to swing a sword most rounds, but it made their extraordinary powers seem real, and of course set magic spectacularly apart. If every attack is 'special' none of them truly are.

 

[Doug McCrae]

Fear: Ease of play:
I love the idea of every class getting powers and resources to manage. It was one of the strengths of Iron Heroes, in my opinion. But with that said:
What if it gets too difficult for beginners? It was said that the easiest class to play was usually something like the Fighter - no resources to manage besides hit points, and you only have to find a way to get close to your enemy and hit him hard. It's really simple.

I've seen several people raise this concern but I don't think it will be a problem. Casual players could just focus on one or two powers and use those all the time. Previous editions had plenty of extra options for the fighter - power attack, grapple, trip, disarm, bullrush, overbearing - but it was possible to just ignore them if you wanted to.

And maybe casual players can handle more complexity than we think, if it's introduced gradually. WoW is a mass market success and each character has dozens of powers.

 

[Nightchilde-2]

Fears...

• That I'm constantly going to have to explain that "hit points" aren't necessarily a measure of damage taken, and that "healing surges" aren't necessarily physical healing.
• Too few powers for each class due to space restrictions in the core rulebook.
• I won't like it. I seriously doubt that's going to be an issue, but it could happen I suppose.
• When I'm running it online via OpenRPG, it's going to take my players forever to take a turn. Granted, that's not necessarily a fear that has anything to do with the system itself....
• I won't be able to talk my F2F group into it.
• That I won't be gaming with one of my favorite gamers due to the fact that he's a h4ter and I'm not (this one has already apparently happened, actually).
• That, even with the more restrictive GLS, we're going to get a glut of subpar third-party products similar to what happened in 3e.
• Tracking stuff (particularly marks) are going to be a PITA. This one's livable though.

.

 

[SaffroN]

- Fear: 4e Too awesome:
Seriously... i can't find faults with it... I've been trying for a while now to come up with something. There is absolutely nothing i don't like. But for the sake of this thread i will....

If i had to make a stretch:
- Fear: Epic level play will be too confusing:
Phew i did it.... i just hope that epic level play is not so involved that its unplayable.

 

[Frostmarrow]

- Fear: Encounter power "spamming":
People will use their encounter powers as often and as much as possible. If the number of encounter powers are limited, this will lead to repetition. Or if they are not limited enough, every attack/action will use an per encounter power, and they lose their feel of "specialness".
Not that Charge/FullAttack/FullAttack wasn't repetitive or lacked specialness, either, but the improvement might not e as big as I could hope for.

I fear spamming a lot. To get the most out of your powers you should always use them if you can. There is always a risk an encounter or day will end before you have the chance to use up all your powers. So it stands to reason to always use daily power on round 1, encounter power on round 2, and so on. It's just good housekeeping. And it's bo-oring.

 

[Belphanior]

Fear: Spamming leads to a rote pattern. Encounter, best at will, best at will, best at will. Daily if it starts to take too long and then rest immediately afterwards.

Fear: No (good) support for cohorts/followers. I want my sidekicks. I want my paragon level fighter to build a keep and attract followers.

Fear: After a while every power starts to feel like every other power. Roll, hit, apply damage and standardized status effect. Nothing to break the mold and feel unique.

Fear: Saving throws working out that a 1st level basketweaver has a 55% to shrug off a condition caused by a 30th level mage.


NB. These are all fears, not expectations.

 

[Andur]

There won't be enough boobs...

 

[Aage]

Really only have one concern, and that is:
-Playing and Dex/Int, Str/Con or Wis/Cha character will be suboptimal because these affect the same defence

 

[hong]

Fear: Multiclassing will suck. The new classes all have a stronger identity than before, which means the multiclassing mechanic has a lot of work to do to restore flexibility without being broken.

Fear: Return of front-loaded combat, where all the boom stuff gets used in the first round. The bloodied mechanic is a nice way to manage combat intensity; let's hope lots of powers key off that. (Spamming of powers is fine, as long as it happens on an unpredictable basis.)

Fear: Gameplay at paragon and epic tiers will be just as complicated as now.

Fear: Striker classes may not have sufficient spike power to justify the label.

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

Here's where I share and don't share your concerns:

- Fear: Ease of play: yes
- Fear: Miniatures/Combat Grid focus: yes
- Fear: Encounter power "spamming": no
- Fear: Daily powers to powerful/important: no
- General: Hit Points as an encounter resource: no

One thing that has been bugging me lately is the utter lack of fluff text for monsters. There is no ecology information at all, no text on the habits and tactics of the creatures, their outlooks, histories, or organizations. Just "Chuuls live in grottoes! **crunch crunch crunch crunch**"

I appreciate the idea that you can fill in your own fluff, but where are the adventure hooks? Where is the fluff I don't have to write because someone already did? I kept hearing in the previews that they were writing fluff for these monsters, but it looks like only some of them, like the fire archons, will actually get a write-up, while others will languish in stat block limbo.